Learn the capital definition Economics, covering money, machinery and equipment used in producing goods and services.
The Capital Definition Economics
Capital is investment, whether it is in money or machinery and equipment, which is used in producing goods and services. Capital in economics includes hard assets, such as the machines and equipment adopted for producing goods. Capital is productive in that it allows the worker to produce more goods or services, over the life of the product.
When referring to capital in economics, the term implies factors of production adopted for producing goods which are not part of the productive process per se. Capital which is primarily used in producing goods, such as machines, tools, factories, and so on, is called productive capital. Capital includes all types of goods (items or commodities) that are used to produce further goods, such as machines, tools, factory buildings, transportation equipment, etc.
In reality, the consumption goods are not included in the capital, since consumption goods are consumed in only one use, and are not used to produce more wealth. Capital may be increased through the use of factors of production, however, this would leave out some of the long-lasting goods such as houses and personal vehicles, which are not used to produce goods and services for sale. A capital asset is the machinery, land, or tools used to produce and distribute the good or service.
Fixed Capital
Fixed capital is generally defined as something which does not change form during the production process, for example, land, buildings, and machines. Fixed capital refers to productive assets with a long lifespan, that can be used over in the course of the productive process. In certain cases, where consumption of the capital goods is not at the same time with the production, this becomes saving, for example, when the farmer does not consume or sell part of the harvest, this may be used in future as seeds.
The more that we invest in accumulating capital, the greater is the opportunity for it to be available for business assistance at the time when needed. Investments in capital goods enhance economic growth by increasing productivity and making it possible for businesses to produce more goods or to serve more customers per hour. Economic growth depends heavily on the synergy of new knowledge and human capital, so increased educational attainment and training has been closely tied to the great advances in technical knowledge of all countries achieving substantial economic growth.
Human Capital
The economics of human capital has produced particularly large changes in the incentives of women to invest in higher education over recent decades. For instance, investments in skills and education may be seen as building human capital, or knowledge capital, while investments in intellectual property may be seen as building intellectual capital. Expenditures in education are called human capital, since individuals cannot be separated by knowledge, skills, health, or worth the way that they can be separated by their financial and physical assets.
Human capital is made up of knowledge, skills, and health people invest and accrue over a lifetime, which allows them to fulfill their potential as productive members of society. Human capital is a persons aggregate capabilities, representing a form of wealth which can be channeled toward the achievement of national or state goals. Human capital is the set of resources comprising all the knowledge, talents, skills, abilities, experiences, intelligence, judgement, and wisdom that individuals have, both as individuals and as groups.
In its widest possible meaning, capital includes human populations; intangibles like skills, abilities, and education; land, buildings, machines, equipment of every sort; and all stocks of goods–finished or incomplete–in the hands of firms and households. The three factors of production include land/natural resources/real property, human capital, and physical capital. Permanent capital refers to investments in the non-human factors of production, such as plants and machinery, and Marx takes it that the non-human factors of production alone bring their replacement value in terms of commodities they are used for.
Public Capital
Public capital would be something owned by the public, the government, whereas private capital would be something owned by private individuals or corporations, or anything but what you have seen is that, on average, you have had sort of a pretty constant, give or take some, value to total capital you have employed has been about four or five times the value of the total amount of total productive output, four or five times the total productive output of the U.S. Return on capital is just a measurement of given the value of the capital you have employed, how much revenue are you getting out of that capital. Your return on capital is going to be $50,000, which is what capital owners are getting, and it is their profit on an investment of $1 million.
That over here would be capital, and a way of thinking of capital is things you can perhaps, it is assets you own which you could value which would provide future benefits for you. People are going to break things down, like land and resources or whatever, and say, capital is, hey, it is your equipment and supplies. However, one must remember that cash lying around with an individual cannot be called money capital, since it is not being used to organize some kind of productive goods or activities.
Reflecting Hicks view, one could say that capital is anything which meets the needs of a person. Adequate growth of stock capital provides for fulfillment of needs such as new machinery, tools, labour, and other essential utilities. As the firm purchases more of the inputs and other materials for producing its firm products, it is able to produce more products per unit of inputs/capital.
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